Malden, a hilly woodland area north of the Mystic River, was settled by Puritans in 1640 on land purchased in 1629 from the Pennacook tribe. The area was originally called the "Mistick Side"[3] and was a part of Charlestown. It was incorporated as a separate town in 1649.[4] The name Malden was selected by Joseph Hills, an early settler and landholder, and was named after Maldon, England, England.[5] The city originally included what are now the adjacent cities of Melrose (until 1850) and Everett (until 1870).

At the time of the American Revolution, the population was at about 1,000 people, and the citizens were involved early in resisting the oppression of Britain: they boycotted the consumption of tea in 1770 to protest the Revenue Act of 1766, and it was also the first town to petition the colonial government to withdraw from the British Empire.[4]

In 2004, a same-sex Malden couple was the first to marry in Massachusetts at precisely 9:15 AM on May 17, 2004 at Cambridge City Hall. Massachusetts was the first state in the United States to issue same-sex marriage licenses.[7]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.1 square miles (13 km2), of which 5.1 square miles (13 km2) is land and 0.04 square miles (0.10 km2) (0.78%) is water. Bordered on the north by the cliffs of Middlesex Fells, Malden is drained by the Malden River.

There were 23,009 households out of which 25.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.8% were married couples living together, 12.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.0% were non-families. 32.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 3.13.

In the city, the population was spread out with 19.9% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 36.9% from 25 to 44, 20.8% from 45 to 64, and 13.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 92.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $45,654, and the median income for a family was $55,557. Males had a median income of $37,741 versus $31,157 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,004. About 6.6% of families and 9.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.6% of those under age 18 and 10.2% of those age 65 or over.

As of 2009 and 2010,[19][20] 37% of residents of Malden were born outside of the United States. This is twice the number in 1990,[19] and an increase from the 26% of foreign-born residents in 2000. Malden's percentage of foreign-born residents was the second-highest in Massachusetts, after Chelsea.[20]

The As of 2009 and 2010 immigrants originate from Brazil,[20] China, Haiti, India, Morocco, and Pakistan. The Moroccan American Civic and Cultural Association is located in Malden.[19]

Previous immigrants included Italians and Irish in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Malden also received Jews who arrived escaping Europe before and after World War II.[19]

Malden Public Schools is the school district. Malden has five public elementary and middle schools; one charter elementary, middle, and high school;[21] one public high school; one Catholic high school, one Catholic Pre-K through 8 school; and one public preschool. The elementary schools in Malden were replaced in the late 1990s with five new facilities: Beebe, Ferryway, Forestdale, Linden, and Salemwood. The city's three high schools are Malden High School, Malden Catholic High School and Mystic Valley Regional Charter High School. According to a study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics in 2013, Malden High School was found to be the most diverse public high school in Massachusetts.[22]

Like many communities in New England, many towns and neighborhoods are organized around squares, which are located at the crossroads and town commons dating back from the colonial times and the early 19th century. Many of the neighborhoods take their name and identity from the main square in their area.

Some of the neighborhoods in Malden include Faulkner (location of the former Suffolk Square) West End, Edgeworth, Linden, Ferryway, Forestdale, Maplewood, Bellrock, and Belmont Hill (located between Bellrock and Ferryway).

Bellrock is the south central section of the city, bordered by Main Street on the east, Charles Street on the north, the Malden River on the west, and the Everett line on the south. It contains Bell Rock Memorial Park (listed on the National Register of Historic Places) and Bell Rock Cemetery (also listed), which contains marked graves dating back to 1670. Bell Rock Cemetery was called Sandy Bank until the establishment of the Salem Street Cemetery in 1832; it was then known as the Old Burial Ground for half a century until it was renamed in 1882. Also located in this area are the headquarters for New England Coffee, which is credited for "making the entire city of Malden smell like roasted coffee."[23]

The Edgeworth neighborhood is the southwest section of the city. It contains Devir Park, Pearl St. Park, and Callahan Park. The city's football stadium, MacDonald Stadium is in Edgeworth. A school in Edgeworth is the former Emerson grammar school. The Converse Rubber Factory and offices once operated in Edgeworth at the bottom of Pearl Street. This is the original home of the Converse "All-Star" Basketball Sneakers. Malden Catholic High School was originally located in Edgeworth on Highland Ave. The school's football team played their home games at Brother Gilbert Stadium, located at Commercial & Medford Streets in Edgeworth. Immaculate Conception Grammar School was located in Edgeworth on the corner of Charles St. and Highland Ave. Edgeworth touches Everett and Medford. Edgeworth is also home to St. Rocco's Feast, SunSetter Awnings and Pisa Pizza.

The Faulkner neighborhood is generally bounded by Ferry Street on the west, the City of Everett on the South, at Dell Street on the east and Salem Street on the north. A few of the streets north of Salem Street around Pierce St are sometimes considered part of Faulkner. In colonial times, Harvell's Mill was located here (at the intersection of Cross Street and the old B&M Railroad tracks, between Eastern Ave and Salem Streets), just below the cliffs, on Harvell's Brook, which drained west to the Malden River. A road from Bellrock crossed here to meet Salem Street just uphill. Formerly called Harvell's Brook Lane, it was renamed Cross Street. In the 19th century a railroad was built along Harvell's Brook, named the Saugus Branch, and the brook was channeled to become a sewage ditch called the Saugus Branch Brook. During this time industry sprouted in this area, and a large immigrant neighborhood focused around Bryant and Cross Streets took shape named Suffolk Square. In the early 20th century Saugus Branch Brook was culverted due to pollution. In the 1920s and 30s Jewish immigrants from East Boston and Chelsea, as well as the West and North Ends of Boston, began to migrate to Suffolk Square. During this time Faulkner was served by three trolley lines and two commuter rail stations by what is now the MBTA. All that remains is the Route 105 T bus line. In the 1950s out-migration by the Jewish community to northern suburbs and the decline of railroads and mill-based industry led to a condition of dilapidated and shabby housing of triple deckers and empty storefronts. Ambitious but experimental urban renewal modeled on Boston's Scolley Square and West End projects leveled Suffolk Square and most of the neighborhood. Controversy around redevelopment projects led to the loss of the commercial center at Suffolk Square and the replacement of dense 3-family houses with suburban-like low-income and senior public housing. Housing projects include Suffolk Manor Senior Housing, Bowdoin Apartments and Newland Street Projects. The neighborhood was once served by Lincoln Elementary, Lincoln Jr High/ Middle School and Daniels Elementary as well at as the former Faulkner school at Peirce and Salem Streets. At the beginning of the 21st century a small section of Harvell's Brook was daylighted and partially restored at Roosevelt Park during the construction of the Salemwood School on the east end of the park. Parks in this neighborhood include Daniels Park, Lincoln Commons, Roosevelt Park and Harvard St. Park.

Forestdale is the north central section of the city and it contains the Forestdale School and park. It also has the largest park in Malden, Pine Banks Park, and the largest cemetery, Forestdale Cemetery. Parts of Forest street follow an old Indian path.

Linden is the southeast section of the city, generally everything east of Broadway/Route 99. It contains the Linden S.T.E.A.M. Academy and Hunting Field, and a moderately sized mountainous area topped with an apartment complex called Granada Highlands. A large portion of this neighborhood was once a marshy area up until the late 19th century. The Linden Land Company sold off house lots on land that was created by filling in the marsh around the Hunting Field area. People are known to still dig up old glass bottles and other items on their property on occasion. Hunting field was once a park that encompassed the entire area inside of Broadway, Salem St., Eastern Ave., and Claremont Street, save for a few homes and a large trolley car barn that was located where Econo Lodge is today. The park at one point had public gardens and a fountain. Over time the land was obliterated by construction of a gated and private housing project for war veterans in the late 40s and the Linden elementary school in 1953. The veterans housing has since been converted to low-income housing. One of the last remaining vestiges of this park is education way which was the old entrance. One of the original park's large oak trees still stands here on the corner of Claremont St., as well as some stone walls.

Maplewood is located approximately one mile east of Malden Square. By car, one can follow either Salem Street or Route 60 directly to Maplewood Square. Most of Maplewood lies within Malden's Ward Six. Maplewood comprises three neighborhoods: South Broadway, Maplewood Highlands (a hilly area to the northeast) and Maplewood lowlands, the most populous of the neighborhoods, which includes Maplewood Square, the heart of the Maplewood neighborhood.

Numerous public buses connect Maplewood to the MBTA's Orange line. Travel time from Maplewood to Boston, via public transit, is as little as 30-minutes. Travel time from Maplewood to the Square One Mall in Saugus is about 15-minutes. An MBTA public transit subway and Commuter Rail station is located 1.3 miles (2.1 km) from Maplewood Square. Maplewood Square is five miles (8 km) from downtown Boston, one mile (1.6 km) from Route One, and two miles (3 km) from Route 93.

Maplewood Square has one gas station (Superior Gas), two convenience stores, a Citizens Bank, 2 drug stores, Peter's Barber Shop, fish market, meat market, three pizza parlors, an optometrist, a dentist, an accountant, two Dunkin Donuts, Toy Store, Jule's Ice Cream Parlor, Papa Gino's, a tailor and dry cleaner, a ballroom dance studio, hair and nail salons, a barber shop, insurance agencies, two children's dance studios, a breakfast restaurant, Patrick's Pub, Ristorante Serena, and two Chinese restaurants (one take-out, the other dine-in). There is an Asian Supermarket near Maplewood Square, as well as a Planet Fitness. Maplewood's churches include Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, and Lutheran congregations. Maplewood also has a Jewish temple. Maplewood's schools include the K-8 building of the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School and Malden Catholic High School, situated at the end of Maplewood Street & at the end of Waite street Extension is the Salemwood School k-8 Formerly Roosevelt Park.

Housing in Maplewood ranges from modern one-family homes in new developments to many homes over a hundred years old, which have been updated over the years. There are many apartments available in one- and two-family homes, as well as in some newer apartment complexes like the Cliffside Apartments on Broadway.

There are three public parks in the neighborhood: Roosevelt, South Broadway and Trafton. Trafton Park has recently been renovated with a tot lot, tennis courts and an off-leash dog run. The future Northern Strand Bike trail will travel through Maplewood on its route to the Atlantic ocean.

The West End neighborhood is the northwest section of the city, along the border with Medford, Ma. It contains the Immaculate Conception Parish, the Fellsmere Pond and Amerige Park. The Beebe School is located in the West End neighborhood. The Malden Hospital, when it was operating, was also located in the West End. The Fells Acre incident occurred here.

The Malden Fire Department operates out of three stations, two located in Malden and one located in Revere. The fire department operates a fleet of four engines (with one reserve engine), two ladder trucks, one command car, one fire prevention unit, one fire alarm unit, and one mechanic unit.

The city is served by the Orange Line subway that connects it to downtown Boston. The city's subway stops are Malden Center and Oak Grove. The MBTA's commuter rail also has one stop in the city (Malden Center) and can stop at Oak Grove if necessary. During the first few years of the 2000s, the MBTA updated signal systems and Orange Line service was replaced by shuttle buses at night. Since September 2007, such service interruptions have been limited to occasional weekends, while signal system repairs necessitated closing off the northern portion of the Orange Line and rerouting passengers via replacement bus service from either the Haymarket subway stop or Wellington Station.

There is a sizable section of the old Boston and Maine Saugus Branch Railroad line running across the middle of Malden. This line is currently owned by the MBTA, but has been out of use since 1993 and has not seen passenger service since 1958. A plan exists to create a bike trail (Bike to the Sea) along the side of these tracks on right-of-way land. Progress was hampered by lack of funds and land encroachment, but is now slated for ribbon cutting in June 3, 2012.[25] The path will be known as the Northern Strand Community Trail.

Bus service to all adjacent communities is also available via the service of the MBTA.

Approximately 30 park sites throughout the city provide a variety of recreational facilities including tennis courts, basketball courts, playgrounds and ballfields. Other sites include a 400-meter synthetic running track at MacDonald Stadium; 56 acres (23 ha) of the Middlesex Fells Reservation; the 25-acre (10 ha) Fellsmere Pond; a DCR-owned and operated swimming pool; a 30,000 square feet (2,800 m²) field house built under the new school rebuilding plan; the state-of-the-art Malden YMCA finished construction in early 2007; and Pine Banks Park, operated by a Board of Trustees with equal representation by the cities of Malden and Melrose. Waitt's Mountain is also in Malden.

Life in early 20th century Malden is the subject of the memoir Linden on the Saugus Branch by writer Elliot Paul. The name Linden refers to the eastern-most section of Malden that borders Revere. Linden was formerly served by the Saugus Branch of the B&M Railroad that ran from Everett to West Lynn via Malden and Saugus. While train service was terminated in the 1950s, and freight ceased to travel the line by the late 90s, the tracks remained in place until late 2012 when they were removed and made into a bike trail.

In contemporary literature, Malden became a setpiece for Stephen King's zombie thriller Cell. King has referenced Malden several times over the years in his various works, as he has (or had) relatives who lived in the city.

Malden's Suffolk Square is the setting for the 2003 novel Sin of Omission by David Evans Katz. In the novel, Malden is thinly disguised as "Middlesex".

Parts of Toni Kelner's 2008 mystery novel Without Mercy are set in Malden. The book's protagonist lives in an apartment near Malden Center, and describes local businesses Pearl Street Station and Town Pizza House.

A memorable gun purchase scene near the beginning of the 1973 film The Friends of Eddie Coyle starring Robert Mitchum was shot in the quarry and around the stone crusher of the former Rowe Quarry on the eastern border of the city. A still of this scene is printed on the recently released Criterion Collection DVD of this movie, used as cover art.

^"1950 Census of Population". 1: Number of Inhabitants. Bureau of the Census. 1952. Section 6, Pages 21-10 and 21-11, Massachusetts Table 6. Population of Counties by Minor Civil Divisions: 1930 to 1950. Retrieved July 12, 2011.

^"1920 Census of Population". Bureau of the Census. Number of Inhabitants, by Counties and Minor Civil Divisions. Pages 21-5 through 21-7. Massachusetts Table 2. Population of Counties by Minor Civil Divisions: 1920, 1910, and 1920. Retrieved July 12, 2011.

^"1890 Census of the Population". Department of the Interior, Census Office. Pages 179 through 182. Massachusetts Table 5. Population of States and Territories by Minor Civil Divisions: 1880 and 1890. Retrieved July 12, 2011.